With a Little Help from My Friends

So how do you sound when you play Eran Egozy’s game “Rock Band”? Or for that matter, when you pour your soul into a Lady Gaga song in the shower? Or when you sing along with Coldplay during the long drive home from work?

Does your singing need a little help?

These guys didn’t need Auto-Tune (Courtesy Harmonix

If so, you’ve got company.

Check out this Nova scienceNOW piece on the software, Auto-Tune. It’s used by many professional singers to make them sound like they actually know how to sing (and it could probably help you win at “Rock Band,” too).

Tom Miller is the producer of “Secret Life” and co-editor of the site’s blog. His job involves interviewing scientists and engineers, getting them to tell their amazing stories and occasionally trying to get them to sing. It’s a fantastic gig and Tom is extremely grateful for it.

This week, NASA announced that it will partner with the European Space Agency to send a 4,760-pound spacecraft into space to peer out over billions of galaxies in an effort to map and measure the universe. Its purpose: to investigate the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.

Original funding for "The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers" was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.